Brothers jailed for 61 burglaries including thefts in Copthorne

Two burglars who were responsible for 61 offences across the country, including in Copthorne, have been jailed.

Patrick Joseph Connors, 23, of Goldcrest Court in Northampton and Miles Luke Connors, 18, of Celeborn Place in Northampton, were sentenced to four years and two years respectively at Guildford Crown Court today (8 June) for their involvement in a series of burglaries across the south of England and the Midlands, spanning 15 counties, Surrey Police confirmed.

The burglaries in Copthorne took place on Sunday, February 4.

Two properties were targeted in Westway and two were targeted in Calluna Drive, said police.

Officers worked with colleagues across a number of forces to crack the case with the pair being arrested in February this year by Bedfordshire Police when they stopped a Vauxhall Insignia on false plates on the M1, a spokesman said.

Inside were the brothers who were arrested and later charged with conspiracy to burgle between July 2017 and February 2018.

Since then they have been remanded in custody and pleaded guilty in May.

In several cases, the brothers attempted to destroy forensics by spraying cleaning fluids and using bleach in an attempt to remove traces of evidence, police said.

The brothers were identified as suspects through CCTV and DNA left at the scenes, allowing officers to link them to other burglaries.

Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras provided evidence as to their movements between Northampton and the other counties, despite their attempts to disguise stolen vehicles with false registration plates, the spokesman said.

Property found in abandoned stolen vehicles was linked to other occurrences across the south of England.